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Thriller

Who Can You Trust?

Trust few and fear all in a collection of films packed with paranoia and conspiracy.

BFI's Thriller season also explores erotic thrillers, racial politics, espionage, the British thriller tradition, fake news, queer characters and femmes fatales.

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Enjoy over 600 subscription-only classic and cult films from across the decades.  Free for 14 days, then £4.99 a month - cancel any time

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Mystery RoadMystery Road

Crime 2013 121 minsDirector: Ivan Sen

An Aboriginal cop returns to his hometown to solve the brutal murder of a teenage girl, uncovering a web of corruption and a growing body count, in Ivan Sen's acclaimed Australian riff on the Western genre.

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Crimes of PassionCrimes of Passion

Thriller 1984 107 minsDirector: Ken Russell

Ken Russell's second Hollywood film is a deliriously excessive erotic thriller with Kathleen Turner as an imperilled prostitute.

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The Bird with the Crystal PlumageThe Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Thriller 1969 97 minsDirector: Dario Argento

Dario Argento's hugely influential thriller, about a murder witness who becomes amateur detective, added sex and style to the murder-mystery and kick-started Italy's 'giallo' genre.

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The Third ManThe Third Man

Thriller 1949 105 minsDirector: Carol Reed

Carol Reed's timeless classic, one of the greatest British films, lavishly marries a perfect script, an unforgettable theme tune and the star power of Orson Welles.

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L'AssassinoL'Assassino

Crime 1961 98 minsDirector: Elio Petri

Elio Petri’s dazzling first feature stars Marcello Mastroianni as dandyish antiques dealer arrested for murder by a Kafkaesque police force.

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Wake in FrightWake in Fright

Drama 1971 109 minsDirector: Ted Kotcheff

In this classic, broiling Australian thriller, an exasperated schoolteacher finds himself stranded in the dusty outback town of Bundanyabba, where the growing isolation and unhinged locals begin to eat away at his sanity.

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Female Human AnimalFemale Human Animal

Drama-documentary 2018 74 minsDirector: Josh Appignanesi

Josh Appignanesi's art-world psycho-thriller blends reality and fiction to delirious effect, in its tale of an exhibition curator pursued by a mysterious figure.

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White of the EyeWhite of the Eye

Thriller 1987 111 minsDirector: Donald Cammell

British visionary Donald Cammell directs this kaleidoscopic, highly stylised thriller about a series of brutal murders in an isolated desert community.

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Trans-Europ-ExpressTrans-Europ-Express

Thriller 1966 95 minsDirector: Alain Robbe-Grillet

This stylish, cult 1966 erotic thriller stars French New Wave icons Jean-Louis Trintigant and Marie-France Pisier.

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MM

Crime 1931 111 minsDirector: Fritz Lang

Peter Lorre is unforgettable as the compulsive child murderer on the run from both police and criminals alike, in Fritz Lang’s seminal crime film.

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The Headless WomanThe Headless Woman

Drama 2008 86 minsDirector: Lucrecia Martel

A woman is plagued by paranoia after she hits something – or someone – with her car in Lucrecia Martel’s acclaimed psychological thriller.

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MotherMother

Thriller 2009 129 minsDirector: Bong Joon-ho

Cult Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s (The Host, Snowpiercer) fourth feature is a startlingly original and thrilling account of the limits of maternal devotion.

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King of New YorkKing of New York

Crime 1990 103 minsDirector: Abel Ferrara

Christopher Walken is the dogged drug-lord determined to keep his empire together, in Abel Ferrara's brutally gritty crime thriller.

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AuditionAudition

Horror 1999 115 minsDirector: Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike burst to international prominence with this deeply disturbing tale of a deadly young woman who turns the tables on her middle-aged suitor.

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Capricorn OneCapricorn One

Science Fiction 1977 123 minsDirector: Peter Hyams

Stunning sci-fi thriller steeped in post-Watergate paranoia, following a hoaxed mission to Mars and a trio of astronauts' desperate flight for survival, with Elliott Gould, James Brolin and O.J. Simpson.

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For Queen and CountryFor Queen and Country

Drama 1989 101 minsDirector: Martin Stellman

Denzel Washington stars as a British paratrooper who returns to the London council estate of his youth, only to find his wartime service counts for nothing.

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ChameleonChameleon

Drama 2016 82 minsDirector: Jorge Riquelme Serrano

Two women are terrorised by an unwanted stranger in this impeccably-styled bourgeois nightmare.

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Flight to BerlinFlight to Berlin

Drama 1984 90 minsDirector: Chris Petit

Chris Petit’s sparse moody thriller begins with a mysterious death.

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GomorrahGomorrah

Crime 2008 132 minsDirector: Matteo Garrone

Matteo Garrone's unnervingly authentic Naples crime drama won the Grand Prix at Cannes before inspiring a hit TV series.

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The HuntThe Hunt

Drama 2012 111 minsDirector: Thomas Vinterberg

Mads Mikkelsen stars in a distressing examination of a false indictment, and the collective hysteria that ensues, in this electrifying drama from Festen director Thomas Vinterberg.

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A HijackingA Hijacking

Thriller 2012 103 minsDirector: Tobias Lindholm

Tobias Lindholm’s thriller refreshes the genre as a ship's cook, Somali pirates and a CEO negotiate an endgame.

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The 39 StepsThe 39 Steps

Thriller 1935 83 minsDirector: Alfred Hitchcock

Sublime and suspenseful version of the popular John Buchan spy thriller from the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock.

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Secret AgentSecret Agent

Thriller 1936 83 minsDirector: Alfred Hitchcock

Long before James Bond, Alfred Hitchcock tried the story of a suave spy.

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The Man Who Knew Too MuchThe Man Who Knew Too Much

Thriller 1934 72 minsDirector: Alfred Hitchcock

An English couple are drawn into espionage when their daughter is kidnapped.

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The Lodger: A Story of the London FogThe Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

Crime 1926 91 minsSilentDirector: Alfred Hitchcock

Ivor Novello plays a strange lodger who may be behind a number of Jack the Ripper-style killings in Alfred Hitchcock’s silent thriller.

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SabotageSabotage

Thriller 1936 77 minsDirector: Alfred Hitchcock

A cinema owner works with a ring of terrorists, with drastic effects on his wife and her brother, in Hitchcock’s London-set thriller.

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The Lady VanishesThe Lady Vanishes

Thriller 1938 96 minsDirector: Alfred Hitchcock

An old woman disappears mysteriously on a busy train in Hitchcock’s delightful classic.

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Night MovesNight Moves

Thriller 2013 113 minsDirector: Kelly Reichardt

Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning star in a taut political thriller about radical environmentalists planning to commit an act of eco-terrorism.

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Frozen RiverFrozen River

Crime 2008 93 minsDirector: Courtney Hunt

Nominated for two Oscars (Best Actress – Melissa Leo - and Best Original Screenplay) Frozen River is a riveting thriller that raises questions about the borders we construct, between countries, communities and each other.

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The Killing of a Chinese BookieThe Killing of a Chinese Bookie

Gangster 1976 109 minsDirector: John Cassavetes

John Cassavetes’s uncompromising character study of a gangster, with Ben Gazzara as the small-time club owner whose life begins to spin out of control.

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High and LowHigh and Low

Crime 1963 143 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa’s procedural crime masterpiece, from Ed McBain’s gritty novel, follows an industrialist who faces an agonising choice as a result of a botched kidnapping by ruthless criminals.

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The Ipcress FileThe Ipcress File

Crime 1965 108 minsDirector: Sidney J. Furie

The coolest spy of all – Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer – makes his brilliant big screen debut in this landmark British spy thriller.

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Hell Is a CityHell Is a City

Police drama 1960 96 minsDirector: Val Guest

Punchy crime thriller with a realist streak as Stanley Baker pursues a fugitive through the streets of Manchester.

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Peeping TomPeeping Tom

Drama 1960 101 minsDirector: Michael Powell

Michael Powell’s dark, disturbing, once controversial tale of a shy camera technician who films women as he kills them is now rightly deemed a classic.

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It Always Rains on SundayIt Always Rains on Sunday

Drama 1947 88 minsDirector: Robert Hamer

Austerity noir: Ealing's downbeat but compelling East End thriller.

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Tiger BayTiger Bay

Police drama 1959 113 minsDirector: J. Lee Thompson

A young girl witnesses a murder, befriending the killer and shielding him from the police.

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FaceFace

Crime 1997 101 minsDirector: Antonia Bird

Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone are members of a criminal gang that tears itself apart after a heist goes wrong, in Antonia Bird’s stylish thriller.

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MelancholiaMelancholia

Thriller 1989 87 minsDirector: Andi Engel

Cerebral thriller about a German art critic who reconnects with his radical past when he agrees to be involved with an assassination attempt.

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Man in FearMan in Fear

Thriller 2011 11 minsDirector: Will Jewell

Luke Treadaway stars as a paranoid man convinced he is destined to be the victim of a conceptual art 'accident'.

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VictimVictim

Crime 1961 100 minsDirector: Basil Dearden

This thought-provoking classic stars Dirk Bogarde as a homosexual lawyer who risks his career to hunt down a blackmailer.

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Odd Man OutOdd Man Out

Crime 1947 116 minsDirector: Carol Reed

Wounded during a robbery, a gunman attempts to escape police in Carol Reed's moody Irish thriller, starring James Mason.

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AssaultAssault

Detective drama 1971 87 minsDirector: Sidney Hayers

Violent British crime film about a murderer on the loose near a girls’ school, starring Suzy Kendall and Lesley Anne-Down.

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The American FriendThe American Friend

Film noir 1978 121 minsDirector: Wim Wenders

Acclaimed director Wim Wenders, with the help of Dennis Hopper, transforms Patricia Highsmith's novel 'Ripley's Game' into a gripping European noir.

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Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler Part 1 (The Great Gambler - A Picture of the Time)Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler Part 1 (The Great Gambler - A Picture of the Time)

Crime 1922 155 minsSilentDirector: Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang's legendary epic of silent cinema, following the diabolical crimes of the titular arch-villain, is a masterpiece of conspiracy, fear and paranoia.

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Dr Mabuse, the Gambler Part 2 (Inferno, A Game for the People of Our Age)Dr Mabuse, the Gambler Part 2 (Inferno, A Game for the People of Our Age)

Crime 1922 115 minsSilentDirector: Fritz Lang

The second part of Fritz Lang's legendary epic of silent cinema, following the diabolical crimes of the titular arch-villain.

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The Ninth ConfigurationThe Ninth Configuration

Horror 1979 118 minsDirector: William Peter Blatty

From the writer of The Exorcist, one of the ultimate cult film experiences: William Peter Blatty's unclassifiable blend of unhinged psychological thriller and anarchic comedy.

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